Obama wins Iowa (again) and California (sort of), extends delegate lead
On Saturday, while those of us in Atlanta were dodging hailstones and picking up after the previous night's tornado, the good people of California finalized their delegate tally from Super Tuesday and the folks in Iowa had a second caucus to decide which delegates go to the next caucuses.
The result?
Obama picked up 14 delegates, Clinton just one. And Edwards lost eight.
In California, Clinton picked up an extra two delegates while Obama got five.
Iowa's second round of caucuses decided on most of the 2500 delegates to the state and district conventions coming up in the summer. Remember, John Edwards was very much in the race when Iowa first voted a couple of months ago, edging out Clinton in the popular vote. The original, unofficial delegate count in January was Obama, 16; Clinton, 15; and Edwards, 14.
That's changed. Since Edwards has dropped out of the race, more than half of his delegates turned their allegiance to Obama. The new, official delegate count: Obama, 25; Clinton, 14; Edwards, 6.
For the day, that means Obama picked up an extra 13 delegates over Clinton. If that doesn't sound like much, here's something to put it in perspective:
For all of Clinton's crowing about her big win in Ohio, she won the delegate count there by just nine. In fact, that entire mini-Super Tuesday (TX, OH, RI, VT) Clinton only won by six delegates (including CNN's projection for the Texas caucus, which Obama won by +9). Come to think, Obama had already wiped out that gain with his victories the following week in Wyoming (+1) and Mississippi (+5).
This is only the beginning, folks. All those caucus states, most of them won by Obama, still have their state conventions coming up in the spring and summer, which means delegates can still swing from one candidate to another (that's why the NY Times doesn't count caucus delegates in its overall count). And the Clinton camp has spent the last month bashing the entire caucus process....
The result?
Obama picked up 14 delegates, Clinton just one. And Edwards lost eight.
In California, Clinton picked up an extra two delegates while Obama got five.
Iowa's second round of caucuses decided on most of the 2500 delegates to the state and district conventions coming up in the summer. Remember, John Edwards was very much in the race when Iowa first voted a couple of months ago, edging out Clinton in the popular vote. The original, unofficial delegate count in January was Obama, 16; Clinton, 15; and Edwards, 14.
That's changed. Since Edwards has dropped out of the race, more than half of his delegates turned their allegiance to Obama. The new, official delegate count: Obama, 25; Clinton, 14; Edwards, 6.
For the day, that means Obama picked up an extra 13 delegates over Clinton. If that doesn't sound like much, here's something to put it in perspective:
For all of Clinton's crowing about her big win in Ohio, she won the delegate count there by just nine. In fact, that entire mini-Super Tuesday (TX, OH, RI, VT) Clinton only won by six delegates (including CNN's projection for the Texas caucus, which Obama won by +9). Come to think, Obama had already wiped out that gain with his victories the following week in Wyoming (+1) and Mississippi (+5).
This is only the beginning, folks. All those caucus states, most of them won by Obama, still have their state conventions coming up in the spring and summer, which means delegates can still swing from one candidate to another (that's why the NY Times doesn't count caucus delegates in its overall count). And the Clinton camp has spent the last month bashing the entire caucus process....